Recently, I received an email from a friend highlighting the concern that conservatives are treating Donald Trump like the Republicans of 1964 treated Goldwater. The point was that all the lies and distortions about Goldwater, having originated in the Republican primaries, were then used by LBJ to destroy the Republican's candidacy. I'm going to dismiss the premise quickly by saying that Goldwater actually had his heart in the right place, where the Donald's heart is invisible. Trump could not be strategically lied about, because, hey it might actually be true and what if it is? (Answer for Trump supporters: We don't know and we don't care).
But history is rhyming now in an entirely different way:
One of the problems with the current administration is that Obama wasn't at all who he presented himself to be to be. From all appearances, he was a person who could transcend identity politics, reduce misunderstandings about race, and present a fresh start to our friends and allies; while winding down an unfocused war. Instead, we saw a president who doubled down on identity politics, inflamed racial mistrust, stonewalled every attempt at transparency ,and conducted his own pointless wars.
A guy who was elected in the first place because foreign and domestic policy was no longer working, and the voters wanted to re-roll the dice.
Here we are today. Foreign and domestic policy is no longer working, and the country wants to re-roll the dice.
Only this time it's going to come up Trump. From appearances, here is a guy who transcends ideology, will address the festering issues of the economy, play tough guy with our enemies, and finally shake up the status quo in Washington. Instead, what we will get is a guy who has no ideology because he has no principles, has not a single idea of what it takes to fix an economy, totally misunderstands the aims of a foreign policy, and is one of the main contributors to the problem of cronyist Washington.
If you can explain to me how this all works out as a positive, please comment below.
